1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to control panels for rack mounted equipment, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for providing a control panel that reduces overall size while providing integrated button protection for functional advantage.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical equipment racks are commonly used to stack a plurality of system chassis. Rack mount enclosures are compact in design and allow for mounting of various components (e.g., servers, switches, power distribution units, etc.) in a stacked style configuration. Utilizing racks allows a user to include various rack-mounted components in the rack, decreasing the footprint, while the components remain easily accessible for maintenance.
Rack space is always at a premium, and various designs have been created to increase the density of equipment storage. For example, some chassis may be mounted upon telescoping rail assemblies to facilitate forward and rearward motion of the chassis in respect to the rack for purposes of performing maintenance and renewal operations on system components that are attached to the chassis.
However, heat is increased by mounting multiple components in a rack, thereby causing deterioration and possible failure of many of the components. Mass data storage systems, tape backup systems, automated tape library systems, electronic test equipment, telecommunications equipment, network servers, routers and firewalls are often mounted in cabinets and rack mount frames. For example, most server systems generate a large amount of heat that requires cooling in order to maintain proper function. The generated heat must be displaced to ensure proper function of all components. Fans are the most common method used to remove this heat.
A frequently underestimated conflict in the design of a high-performance computer is the trade-off between design for density and the ability of the fans to move hot air away from the system. Thus, airflow for cooling products is an increasing requirement. Nevertheless, control panels often block valuable real estate that could be used for more air vents.
For example, current control panels on some blade servers include three primary buttons, a smaller non-maskable interrupt (NMI) button, 5-6 LEDs, and a hinging door protecting the power button. FIG. 3 illustrates a current control panel 300 for a blade server that is located at the top of the blade server. The control panel 300 includes system information LEDs and control switches 312, 314. A media-select button 312 is provided to allow a CDROM drive, diskette drive, and USB port to be associated with the blade server. The media select button 312 lights when the ownership of the CD-ROM drive, diskette drive, and USB port transfers to this blade server. Blade-error LED 320 is used to indicate that a system error has occurred in the blade. Information LED 322 is used to indicate information about a system error for the server has been placed in the error log. Location LED 324 is turned on in response to a programmed condition or remotely by the system administrator to aid in blade identification for maintenance. The location LED 324 will be on also. After maintenance has been completed the location LED 324 is turned off. Activity LED 326 indicates that there is activity in the blade server. This includes hard disk and network activity. Power-on LED 328 indicates that the server has AC power. The console select button 314 is used to associate the keyboard mouse and video ports with this blade server. This button 314 lights when the ownership of the keyboard mouse and video transfers to this blade server. A power-control button is located behind the control panel door. The power control button is pressed to manually turn the blade server on or off.
FIGS. 4a-b illustrates a second embodiment of a current control panel 400. In FIG. 4a, a hinged cover 410 is shown in the closed position. However, the video 412 and CD 414 buttons are accessible with the hinged cover 410 in the closed position. FIG. 4b shows the hinged cover 410 in the open position. When the hinged cover 410 in the open position the LEDs 430-440 for diagnostics are visible and the power button 432 is accessible. To provide greater airflow, it would be beneficial if current control panels could be replaced with control panels designed to take up even less surface area. However, simply reducing the size of the control panel may result in additional disadvantages. For example, to allow for readability, the size of icons should not be reduced to a point that renders the icons meaningless. Likewise, the spacing between buttons should not be reduced to such an extent that human-machine interaction is negatively effected. The spacing requirement is intended to prevent accidental activation of one button when depressing an adjacent one.
It can be seen that there is a need for an apparatus and method for providing a control panel that reduces overall size while providing integrated button protection for functional advantage.